Show him but the fragment of some shattered arch, or conduct him to some secluded spot on the river's bank, where one gaunt buttress, and a few scattered stones are all that are left to testify to the omnipotence of ruin; and from these scant materials alone he will conclude, with certainty, the age, the form, and the purposes of the fabric whose traces thus remain; and as the grey moss lifts its hoary frond, and the fading inscription unveils its mysterious hieroglyphics, gradually every stone, every inscription, and every statue, exhibit to him their outline, and appealing to his heart with all the powerful associations of an immortal interest, become the objects of a new and most harmless idolatry! It is enough for him that they have left but their petrified foot-prints on the sand!
I imagine there are few who would doubt that studies and pursuits of this kind must be a great source of improvement and of delight; but I should wish to convince you of a fact no less certain, though I think less commonly acknowledged, that an acquaintance with this science may advantageously mingle with many details of our common life; that it may lend zest to every enjoyment, and enable those who possess it to taste pleasure which those who are destitute of it can never know. Let me take so common and trivial an occurrence as a summer's holiday; let me suppose a time when many amongst you, released for a time from your more active occupations, are able to enjoy a few weeks' or days' excursion; and let us see whether, in this case, some taste for archæological pursuits may not add greatly to the pleasure you would experience.
The traveller passing rapidly, with all the speed that railroads now supply, through the plains of Lancashire, may stop short when he arrives at Penrith or at Car-
